The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and electrochemical
ozone production (EOP) attracted considerable attention due to their
wide applications in electrocatalysis, but the detailed reaction mechanism of
product formation as well as the voltage effect on O
2/O
3 formation still remains unclear. In this work, the density functional theory
calculations were used to systematically investigate the possible reaction
mechanisms of OER and EOP on the PbO
2 (110) surface, with the
possible reaction network involving surface lattice oxygen atoms (LOM)
proposed. The results show that the LOM-2 reaction pathway involving two
surface lattice oxygen atoms (O
latt) and one oxygen atom from H
2O
was the most thermodynamically reactive. Different potential determining step
(PDS) was obtained depending on the multiple reaction pathway, and the results
show that the facile diffusion of O
latt would proceed the LOM
pathway and promote the formation of surface oxygen vacancies (O
vac1/O
vac2). Furthermore, O
vac1/O
vac2 formation on the surface would trigger further reactions of H
2O
adsorption and splitting, which refilled the oxygen vacancy and ensured the
considerable stability of the PbO
2 (110) surface. Multiple H
2O
dissociation pathways were proposed on PbO
2 (110) with oxygen
vacancy sites: the acid-base interaction mechanism and the vacancy fulfilling
mechanism.